How much do you contribute to your pension each month?

[LittlePrecious]

I'm just curious as I've just increased my contributions.

My gross salary is £67K.

I put roughly £750 into my workplace pension each month - £350ish as standard and then I add another £400 each month.

I'm trying it on for size for a year and then might increase it again. I could afford to put a lot more into my pensions, but I want some ££ for short-term flexibility, rather than locking everything away until later life.

I'm 40 with very little prospect of huge salary increase.

How much do you contribute to your pension each month?

I always think talking about % of salary is more useful. My employer's DB pension scheme is 6.1% of salary and I pay an additional ~16.5% into a mix of DC pension and ISA. I have a spreadsheet modelling different scenarios of investment returns and future pension access ages to see if I'm on track for my retirement goals.

Im a member of the Local Government Pension Scheme which means I put in 8.5%. I get 1/49 of my pensionable pay each year as my pension.

I have a previous normal pension which mine and employers contribution was 12% combined. I had this for 13 years.

They seem to be linking drawing pensions to state retirement age so I am thinking its good to have something else in case of ill health to bridge that gap.

16% altogether, half from me, half from employer.

Does your contribution include anything by your employer on your behalf?

As a rule of thumb, you want your total contribution (including employers) to be half your age as a percentage of your salary - so for someone aged 40, about 20%.

My employer puts 10% and I add an additional 15%.

I contribute 5% and my employer doubles that. If I up the percentage then employer would match at double that as well, but at the minute I’m happy with my contribution.

This is a useful rule of thumb for many - particularly younger people.

However it doesn’t apply to others. For example, I work part time in low paid job. Currently I am paying in 100% of my earnings into pension. Luckily my husband earns well so we live off his wage (he is also making plenty of pension contributions ).

I'm fortunate enough to work for a company that has a high percentage non-contributory pension which I top up to 18% - plus I put my full yearly bonus into the pension so that's an extra 10-15%. I'm 50ish and trying to make up for leaner years when I was younger and couldn't afford to make such large contributions.
I've had times when I had a final salary pension (good) and times when I had an employer that contributed the bare minimum and I couldn't afford to top up very much (bad).You just have to do what's right for you at the time.

I'm a SAHM, so I put in £2880 from the family pot each year. Just did it again this tax year. Government tops it up to £3600 I think.

Important to think of pensions whether you are working or not!

NHS employee so 10.7% of my salary. I am lucky enough to have a final salary pension in the old scheme having worked in the NHS for 30 years. 11 years and counting until I am 60 and will leave.

7.35% into the civil service scheme, plus approx £1000/month for extra pension and £1500 AVCs. Loads.

I try to do the half my age % in total contributions (me, employer, tax relief at source). I have 2 DC pensions - one employer and one independent. At 50, I'm in a fairly comfortable position to continue increasing my contributions with pay increases, plus DH and I would like to retire at or before 60, so we're keeping an eye on that as a possibility.

Not necessarily as it depends on circumstances. £67k could be a generous salary for someone who is child free and mortgage free or it could be supporting a family who has a mortgage, student loans and a SAHP or childcare to pay for, so far lower disposable income.

OP if you put in as much as you can afford while still having a reasonable lifestyle and keeping accessible money and investments, that's a good position to be in.

I earn just shy of 90k and put in 10% employer contributes 6% I’m going to put in another 10% when my student loan is finished in 18 months. I’m 46 and my pension pot in total is about 80k and I massively want to increase that in my last 20 years

I put 15% in, my employer 12%, I have been doing that for a few years now but I am 54.

I am self employed so my monthly income varies
I put in 10% of whatever monthly income is.

Just FYI, this rule of thumb is based on the age you start contributing - you shouldn’t need to increase every year to keep up with your age.

So if you start at 22, it should be enough to contribute 11% your whole life.

I contribute 17% in total.

25% of my salary, including a 15% employer contribution. I haven’t always contributed that much, but ideally I want to retire before I’m 60. I also have investments to hopefully bridge any gap between retiring and my pension paying out.

NHS pension so I think it’s 10% ish of my salary.

Workplace puts in 10% and I put in 7%. I also put all of my bonus in this year. Last year I did most in pension and some shares.

I always put away 15% of gross salary.

I contribute 16%, employer adds another 10%. Just over £1500 a month. I'm 52 and worked part time for 15 years so it should probably be more.

I put 9.9% of my pay into the teacher pension.

And I choose to put another 5% into an AVC.

22.5% of my pay, plus employer let's me keep their NI saving.

My contributions work out at about 14% of gross salary.

My employer pays in 14%.

I'm planning to retire early, before I can draw my pension. So I don't want to tie up too many spare pennies in pensions because I need other investments to draw from between retiring early and taking my pension.

This is the first year I've felt comfortable enough to increase my pension contributions. It's really helpful to get a sense of what others are doing.

Thanks all for being so honest.

Depends if you have a final salary pension or defined contribution. Both have benefits and disadvantages. I had a final salary from one company (not willable), and defined contributions from others. And I have been paying AVC's since I was 18, so able to retire comfortably at age 55 if I want to.

You can never have too much in your pension, but it depends on whether you will survive to pensionable age, and of course, none of us know this. This is only relevant regarding the comment about whether your pension is willable.